The Olympian
Port of Olympia commission largely supports waterfront hotel
The Port of Olympia commission on Tuesday was briefed on a waterfront hotel proposal, an idea that largely received their support and resulted in them asking port staff to continue looking into it. There was one exception: “I’m less enthusiastic,”...
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Thurston detectives seek help solving mother’s cold case homicide
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office is renewing its call for information about the homicide of Karen Bodine as the 19th anniversary of her death approaches. Bodine, a mother of three, was found at dead at the entrance of an old gravel quarry located...
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Budget, affordabilty likely to dominate legislative session
The Washington state Legislature is back in session. Monday marked the first day of 2026’s 60-day legislative session. The hallways beneath the Capitol dome buzzed with activity as lawmakers returned to Olympia for opening day ceremonies at noon. In...
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Olympia aims to boost food access, security in times of crisis
The Olympia City Council unanimously approved a referral from council member Dani Madrone to develop a food system plan during its Jan. 6 meeting, in an effort to ensure residents have access to local food in times of crisis. Madrone’s referral states...
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Major Capitol Lake project could cost $416M
The Washington State Department of Ecology took over the efforts to restore Capitol Lake to an estuary over the summer, with several new objectives and a goal of completing 60% design of the restored Deschutes Estuary by the end of 2025. Ecology’s...
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What’s happening at downtown hotel; new restaurant coming
The Governor Hotel in downtown Olympia on Capitol Way across from Sylvester Park appears to have closed for a forthcoming renovation, according to a check of the property on Wednesday. A parking entrance on Capitol Way was fenced off, the automatic...
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Can city cut down beloved 400-year-old tree? Judge rules
A Thurston County Superior Court judge has ruled that the City of Tumwater can’t cut down the historic Davis Meeker Oak tree without prior approval from its Historic Preservation Commission. The 400-year-old oak tree has been the subject of debate in...
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Olympia eyes terminating major development agreement
Olympia’s Land Use & Environment Committee unanimously approved plans to terminate the Briggs urban village development agreement to be forwarded to the City Council for review. Terminating the plan would ultimately allow more homes to be built in the...
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Work begins on The Gibson project; Providence to keep Lacey AIC open
A downtown Olympia project known as The Gibson, which will turn a former office building into 64 units of affordable housing, is underway, accordinto ing to a check of the property. The building is owned by developer Ken Brogan, who turned a former...
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WA secretary of state, a D&D fan, promotes tabletop gaming
When Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs was growing up, he got hooked on what would become a lifelong hobby: Dungeons & Dragons. As a person of color and nerd who’d been picked on as a kid, he said the fantasy role-playing game was a chance for...
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How does transfer pact between SPSCC and Evergreen work?
application fee, no essay, no recommendation letters and guaranteed admission. It almost sounds too good to be true, but it’s all part of a new agreement announced by The Evergreen State College and South Puget Sound Community College to streamline...
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$14M plan will bring protected bike lanes to Capitol Way
The City of Olympia has plans to reconfigure the Capitol Way Corridor to reduce speeding in the area and make the neighborhood more accessible to all modes of transportation. Senior Engineer Joey Jones provided more details on the city’s plans during...
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‘Shocked’: Thurston County passes $1B budget with 3-2 vote
Thurston County commissioners narrowly adopted a new biennial budget with substantial spending cuts Tuesday. The $1 billion budget for 2026-2027 passed with a contentious 3-2 vote at The Atrium, the county’s administrative headquarters in...
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Want to manage a ditch in Thurston County for $15K a year?
This week is candidate filing week. But it’s not for county commissioner, or the port, or any of the councils in Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater, or any school district for that matter. Instead, it’s for commissioner seats at some of the lowestprofile...
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$7.6M to revamp Tumwater fire station that opened in 1995
Tumwater’s T2, also known as the North End Fire Station, is set to undergo a $7.6 million renovation project to turn what was originally a volunteer fire house into a more fully-functioning facility for the growing city. Fire Chief Brian Hurley...
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Tree-seed bank in South Sound is crucial as wildfires worsen
smelled like Christmas inside the Silvaseed extractory Tuesday morning, Dec. 2, as machines whirred meticulously to remove millions of conifer seeds from cones and sort them into large barrels. Hidden inside an unassuming complex in the small...
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WA revamps push to require high school financial education
Financial education could soon be a requirement to graduate high school thanks to a renewed legislative push heading into the 2026 session. State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti is requesting agency legislation and is teaming up with state Sen. Adrian...
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Lawmaker warns of rising blackout risk amid clean energy push
2026 approaches, a Republican state lawmaker is raising alarm bells about possible energy shortfalls amid extreme conditions — with potential reliability problems hitting as early as next year. State Sen. Matt Boehnke is calling for action in the...
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48th annual Toy Run expected to bring large crowd to Olympia
The 48th annual Olympia Toy Run is this Saturday, and this year’s event is expected to bring 1,500 people on motorcycles to downtown. According to a news release from the Department of Enterprise Services, Deschutes Parkway will be closed to normal...
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Traffic congestion expected at downtown Olympia intersection
Work crews plan to demolish a sidewalk at Fourth Avenue and Plum Street in Olympia this week to make way for major safety improvements. The demolition will start on Dec. 1, weather permitting, on the southeast corner of the intersection, according to...
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Tacoma Zoolights opens; dogs are allowed for first time
Zoolights, the annual outdoor light display at Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, opens Friday. For the first time, the zoo will allow visitors to bring their dogs on five select nights in December and January. Remember that a section of Five...
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WA stocking 65,000 jumbo rainbow trout in these lakes
Washington anglers: Start your boat engines. Ahead of Thanksgiving weekend, the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife is loading more than two dozen lakes with nearly 65,000 jumbo rainbow trout, according to a recent WDFW news release. The goal: to...
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Gov. Ferguson unveils first appointment to WA Supreme Court
There’s a new Washington state Supreme Court justice in town. Gov. Bob Ferguson revealed his first appointment to the state’s highest court at a Monday morning news conference at the Temple of Justice in Olympia. His pick: Colleen Melody, who serves...
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Olympia resident sells 10 acres to city for future park
The City of Olympia has partnered with a local conservation organization to purchase a nearly 10-acre property of undeveloped land awash in mature, native trees to become a future public park. Parks Planning and Design Manager Laura Keehan said the...
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Tractor appears, then disappears at Grand Mound roundabout
A weathered tractor and rake appeared in the middle of a Grand Mound roundabout in late October. The unsanctioned centerpiece quickly drew local admiration as well as a threat of removal from the Washington State Department of Transtery...
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Port of Olympia race neck and neck after third ballot count
The Port of Olympia District 2 race between incumbent Bob Iyall and challenger Jerry Toompas moved into the spotlight on Thursday as Toompas inched ahead of Iyall in what has become a neck and neck contest. The two candidates were separated by about...
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Olympia’s $20 minimum wage measure failing in early results
Proposition 1, the initiative to raise Olympia’s minimum wage to $20 and adopt a Workers’ Bill of Rights, is poised to fail, according to preliminary results. Wednesday’s tally showed 55.9% of voters voting “no,” and 44% voting “yes.” The vote tallies...
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Fatal house fire near Steamboat Island under investigation
The cause of the house fire that killed a woman near Steamboat Island in Thurston County on Saturday is under investigation, Griffin Fire Chief Corey Rux said Tuesday. Rux said in a news release that the Griffin Fire Department, along with multiple...
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Look inside improved ballot processing center in Tumwater
When a voter casts their ballot in Thurston County, it eventually ends up at an unassuming warehouse building in Tumwater, just west of South Puget Sound Community College. Once there, the ballot undergoes a rigorous inspection process before being...
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Nonprofits warn Prop. 1 will raise costs of services
Several Olympia-area nonprofit organizations drafted a collective impact statement on Olympia’s Proposition 1 ballot measure and what raising the minimum wage to $20 and adopting a Workers’ Bill of Rights would do to local programs and...
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Road workers deliver workplace grievances to commissioners
Thurston County road workers and their allies took their workplace grievances directly to the Board of County Commissioners last week. Over four dozen people packed into The Atrium, many in Public Works-labeled orange vests, to show their disapproval...
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Why Lacey homeless shelter isn’t accepting new residents
The city of Olympia earlier this month completed the final phase of a long-term plan to move homeless residents out of Percival Canyon on the city’s west side and into housing. When the day was complete, 32 people, as identified on a “by name list,”...
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Olympia nonprofits, franchises fear Prop. 1
Alex Ketter, the co-owner of Olympia Senior Care on the city’s west side, said he first heard about the proposal to raise Olympia’s minimum wage and adopt new worker protections and rules through a signature gatherer while grocery shopping. He was told...
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Vance lands in Israel as US tries to shore up Gaza truce
Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel on Tuesday for meetings with the country’s leaders, as the Trump administration rushes to shore up the hard-won, fragile ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip. Israel and Hamas agreed this month to a truce in their...
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Tenino guild offering stone carving to keep heritage alive
On three August summer days stone carver Daniel Miller taught a group of students how to work with sandstone at the historic Hercules #1 Quarry in Tenino. “What I was trying to accomplish was to give beginner students an insight into the tools, the...
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Experts aim to restore historic piano after Capitol break-in
Delivering the Blüthner piano back to the Washington state Capitol was a proud moment for Ken Eschete. In 2017, the Spokane-based piano technician had worked to restore the historic instrument, which had lived in the State Reception Room for nearly...
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Percival Creek Canyon in west Olympia closed to encampments
Thirty-two people have been moved into transitional housing after the city of Olympia completed the final phase of closing Percival Creek Canyon to homeless encampments last week. The west Olympia canyon runs from U.S. Highway 101 into Capitol Lake...
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3 questions for Port of Olympia commission candidates
The Port of Olympia commission candidate field is set. It features District 2 incumbent Bob Iyall against newcomer and special education teacher Jerry Toompas, while in the District 3 race, Port of Olympia citizens advisory committee member Anthony...
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Missing girl declared legally dead as case remains unsolved
Oakley Carlson, an Oakville girl missing for four years, has been declared legally dead in Pacific County Superior Court despite her case still being unresolved. Attorneys for Bruce Wolf, the guardian ad litem for Carlson’s siblings, petitioned the...
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Intruder breaks into, damages WA Capitol building
An intruder broke into the Washington state Legislative Building Sunday night, causing significant damage. Gov. Bob Ferguson posted on social media platform Bluesky that the intruder “damaged several facilities and historical artifacts.” In addition,...
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$14M project to bring bike lanes, more to Olympia roadway
Olympia has a longtime plan to reconfigure the lanes on Capitol Way to Capitol Boulevard, from near the Capitol Campus to Tumwater. The $14 million project will bring bike lanes, crosswalks and more to the area, according to the city. City Senior...
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Sederberg presents Olympia Art Museum at Arts Walk
Dave Sederberg is known around town for the outdoor installations that have been popping up to illuminate Olympia since the dark days of the pandemic. But if you don’t know Sederberg, who owns Pacific Stage and has long been a supporter of the...
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Thurston commission spares animal services from budget cuts
Thurston County will spare local animal services from funding cuts for now following public pushback to a proposal last week. On Friday, the Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved reversing a Sept. 23 decision that alarmed supporters of...
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Truck driver dies when semi leaves onramp, lands on parkway
The Washington State Patrol is investigating after a log truck merging onto U.S. 101 from southbound I-5 on Wednesday morning left the roadway and landed on Deschutes Parkway below. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene. Tumwater Fire Department...
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Almanac says Washington winter to be mostly mild
Winter is still a few months off, but if you love the snow — or if you do everything you can to stay out of it — you may already be wondering what the season will bring. Nationwide, it’s expected to be a “mostly mild” winter, with some “pockets of...
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Port of Olympia explores future of ferry service
Five months ago the Port of Olympia hosted an electric fast ferry demonstration on Budd Inlet, generating plenty of buzz about the possibility of that service transporting passengers to other Puget Sound destinations, including those close to...
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Home building training program celebrates first graduates
South Puget Sound Community College, the Olympia Master Builders Foundation, and United Way of Thurston County celebrated the first graduates of a new, collaborative Residential Construction Academy on Wednesday afternoon. The Residential...
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River Ridge students return to transformed, renovated campus
As students descended on River Ridge High School in Lacey last Thursday for the first day of school, they were asking for directions to classrooms or offices. That’s because the school, which serves about 1,500 students, is almost unrecognizable after...
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State issues order to provide easy access to COVID vaccine
Most Washington residents won’t need a prescription to get the COVID-19 vaccine at their local clinic or pharmacy, the state Department of Health (DOH) announced Friday. That’s because the department has issued a new standing order for the vaccine to...
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Evergreen State one of the best colleges in US, ranking says
A college in Olympia earned praise from a national magazine for “the extraordinary outcomes it provides to a student body of everyday means.” The Evergreen State College placed in the top 15% in Washington Monthly’s 2025 ranking of Best Colleges for...
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Judge rules Trump deployment of military to LA illegal
A federal judge in San Francisco on Tuesday barred soldiers from aiding immigration arrests and other civilian law enforcement in Southern California, warning of a growing “a national police force with the President as its chief” in an impassioned...
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Department of Ecology takes lead on estuary restoration
Responsibility for the enormous project to return Capitol Lake back into an estuary has been transferred to the Department of Ecology. The Washington State Legislature included the decision in the budget passed earlier this year, and Ecology officially...
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DNR to conserve 77,000 acres of mature forests
Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove on Tuesday signed an order to conserve 77,000 acres of mature and older state forests across Western Washington. Upthegrove, who took charge of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in January, announced...
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Digital equity groups say feds owe $3.6M in reimbursements
Tears of frustration welled behind Sharonne Navas’ glasses, her shoulders slumped slightly forward. “Even up until this week, I was just like, ‘Well, no. It’s the government. They have to pay,’” she told McClatchy in late July. Navas, the executive...
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Olympia radio station KXXO to change hands, owners confirm
KXXO, best known as Mixx 96.1 FM, a radio station based in downtown Olympia for the past 35 years, is about to change hands, the longtime owners of the business confirmed to The Olympian on Thursday. The Olympian learned of the sale via a...
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Heat wave expected for Olympia area this weekend
Above normal hot and dry weather is expected in the Olympia area this weekend and into next week, the National Weather Service warns. The forecast shows sunny days ahead with high temperatures in the low 90s and low temperatures mostly in the 60s....
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County could need dozens more defense attorneys
Thurston County may need to hire 53 new defense attorneys and support staff to meet new caseload standards set by the Washington state Supreme Court, according to internal projections. Patrick O’Connor, the county’s Public Defense Director, shared...
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Kelp beds gain protection with partnership of tribe, state
Native bull kelp forests in the Puget Sound have been steadily disappearing for decades. According to recent studies, there was an 80% loss of native kelp between 2013 and 2024. Around Squaxin Island, where the southernmost kelp forest used to be...
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Summer rain could dampen Bear Gulch Fire
Washington residents wouldn’t normally welcome a week of rain amid a stretch of sunny summer weather. With Washington’s wildfire season in full swing, however, state officials were excited to see rain in the forecast. “The No. 1 way to reduce fire...
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LOTT Clean Water Alliance wants to make wastewater drinkable
If you read that headline and spit up your morning coffee, wipe your chin and catch your breath: this isn’t happening just yet in the Olympia area. But it is an idea that the LOTT Clean Water Alliance, the wastewater utility in downtown Olympia that...
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Thurston County board OKs $34.9M deal for downtown
Thurston County plans to move its courthouse and administrative headquarters to downtown Olympia. On Wednesday, the county board entered into a $34.9 million real-estate deal for the property: a seven-acre site with multiple buildings at the...
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A look at Grass Lake Nature Park’s $2.8M renovations
A neighborhood wetland park on Olympia’s west side has been made more accessible, thanks to $2.8 million in renovations. Now people can take in a never-before-seen view of one the most environmentally intact wetland systems in northern Thurston County...
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Mi Luna brings authentic Cuban cuisine, community to Olympia
Kirsten Herrera-Root and her husband, Rich Root, dreamed of opening a café for over two decades. About two years ago, they moved back to Olympia and decided to make their dream into a reality. “It felt like it was either now or never,” Herrera-Root,...
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Historic Sandman tugboat fails to find a buyer at auction
The future of the Sandman, a 60-foot wooden tugboat that sits high and dry at the Port of Olympia’s boat yard, is no brighter after a public auction Wednesday morning failed to attract any bidders. The boat was hauled out of the water two years ago...
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Johnson cuts short House session to avoid Epstein files vote
Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced he was cutting short the week’s legislative business and sending the House home early for the summer on Wednesday to avoid having to hold votes on releasing files related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey...
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Olympia Oyster Seed Planting Project aids Sound cleanup
For decades, Dan Mazur has taken the phrase, “the world is your oyster” literally. He grew up in Illinois, but took off for Montana the morning after his high school graduation. “Well, you know, I was young, foot loose and fancy free,” Mazur said....
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Olympia Hindu Temple debuts as newest Lakefair vendor
Olympia’s Indian community, the nearest Hindu temple has always been at least 60 miles away in Bellevue, an hour long drive, if you’re lucky enough to avoid traffic. But that changed last August when the Olympia Hindu Temple and Cultural Center opened...
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Auction set for Olympia’s historic Sandman wooden tugboat
The Sandman, a 60-foot wooden tugboat that for years was moored at Percival Landing where it offered public tours, is headed to the auction block this month, Port of Olympia officials say. The vessel, which was originally built in 1908, was hauled out...
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Washington’s only Army museum is at risk of closure
Army-green tanks stand at attention outside the Lewis Army Museum next to Interstate 5 near DuPont. On display inside the Swiss Chalet-style building: decades-old shoe polish, pocketbook-sized paperbacks, soldiers’ diaries and handwritten letters to...
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17 sculptures compete for public vote in Olympia
Olympia’s Percival Plinth Project sculpture competition, launching Saturday, July 12, with a reception, puts public art to a public vote. This year’s competition, the 15th, features 17 sculptures arrayed along Percival Landing from Isthmus Park to the...
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Joint Animal Services receives $1M to design new shelter
Joint Animal Services operates out of a failing warehouse from the 1970s originally constructed to store gas and propane. Since moving into the site on Martin Way East in 1996, Thurston County’s animal shelter has faced a slew of challenges requiring...
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Drive the 47th parallel on this local road
A local historian’s journey to find out if Mount Rainier lies on the 47th parallel led to the discovery that one of Tumwater’s oldest roads runs right down the latitudinal line. He’s hoping that having this fact recognized along with other historic...
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World’s only all-wheel-drive muscle Car: All-new Dodge Charger Daytona engineered to conquer treacherous all weather
The all-new, allelectric Dodge Charger Daytona, the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car, is staking claim to yet another impressive title: the world’s only all-wheel-drive muscle car. The 670-horsepower Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack and...
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